The Goals of Hamas vs. the Goals of the Palestinians

The Israeli hit on the Hamas military leader, Ahmed Jabari, received a lot of attention. The UN Security Council rushed to meet last night on the subject at Egypt's request. But why hasn't this council found a few minutes to meet on the subject in the past year, while rockets were flying and threatening Israeli civilians lives almost every day? And whose goals did this approach really serve?

Many people mix their support for the Palestinian cause, and the the murderous cause of the Gaza rulers -- Hamas. Hamas has fired about 800 rockets into civilian targets in Israeli cities (not settlements), since the beginning of 2012, and lately has hastened the pace, for no apparent reason at all. Why did Hamas choose to act this way? Mainly because its leaders thought they can. They figured they can't lose -- chances are the Israeli government will just let it slide because elections are close and they'll choose to avoid the mess, and should Israel choose to retaliate -- Hamas will drag Egypt into the story and gain more political power. So why not take advantage of that?

The land-mine in the way of understanding the complex situation between Israel and the PA is failing to differentiate between the Palestinian people and their leaders, and in this case, Hamas. The Palestinian people want to make a peaceful living, but Hamas have completely different things on their minds. Hamas is a brutal terror organization that only knows how to create hatred and bloodshed -- that's where it derives its power and these are its declared goals. Had they wanted, Hamas leaders could have taken the heavy funding they receive from Iran and Qatar and use it to develop an economy in their little strip of land. But Hamas is indifferent to the Palestinian economic needs -- all they ever do with the money is purchase more arms and ammunition, which they keep firing into Israel.

The armament and constant shooting is the reason the naval siege on Gaza still exists. Israel has pulled out of Gaza long ago -- and the naval siege would have also been removed if it wasn't exploited by Hamas as a channel to smuggle more arms. This is the vicious circle we're in -- if you ignore the Hamas terror-machine and only focus on the Israeli retaliation, you're not just missing the point, you're actually letting Hamas pull you by the nose. Hamas' intention is to hide behind the Palestinian people and the pity towards them, in order to achieve silent support for the continuation of terror, meaning the prevention of peace. That's all.

Hamas has also managed to put the Egyptian president Morsi in a bind -- Morsi wants to be perceived as "different from Mubarak," and that's why ever since he's been in power, he's given his hand to Hamas. Hamas is exploiting this, of course. Morsi has more important economic issues to focus on, but he's vowed to stand with Hamas. So he has no choice but to stand behind his words, which means Hamas is pulling Morsi by the nose in order to be the tail that wags the dog.

With Hamas there is no chance for peace -- they seek war, they seek hatred, they seek bloodshed, they are terrorists, period. For Hamas, survival means war. This is what they thrive on, this is where their power and funding is enabled. This is their one and only goal.

Israel will have to weigh its next steps in this present conflict very carefully. On the one hand, it was impossible to just stand there and ignore the shooting that Hamas escalated a bit more every day. On the other hand, it is definitely against Israeli interests to prolong this violence for more than a few days.

But in the long term, the only way to stop the violence and to make any real progress at all is to stop supporting Hamas, whether knowingly, like Morsi, or simply by failing to see the clear conflict between Hamas and the Palestinian peoples' goals. Only if Hamas is weakened, can this vicious circle be stopped. Hamas has to understand that the world is onto its cynical charade.